Mayors from cities all along the "Mighty Mississippi" met in Minneapolis on Wednesday for the latest Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative.

The meeting started with a unique dedication to Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman, who was in attendance three months after being injured in a political assassination attempt.

"Mayoral leadership of the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative unanimously voted to dedicate this meeting, our first regional conference, to our friend and tireless advocate, Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman," said Champlin Mayor Ryan Sabas.

Hoffman explained why he feels this collaboration is so important.

"We want to drink it, we want to fish in it, we want to swim in it, we want to have recreation in it and we want to move our product in it," Hoffman said. "That means everybody."

But the Mississippi also brings challenges to its cities along the banks, including weather whiplash from drought to flooding. That prompted the launch of NOAA's new Mississippi River and Basin Drought and Water Dashboard.

"The dashboard will take data currently spread over eight federal agencies and collect it into a one-stop shop to augment communication and decision support across the Mississippi River corridor," said Melisa Logan, mayor of Blytheville, Arkansas.

The need for immediate response and recovery to natural disasters was also addressed through the announcement of a mutual aid agreement with the nonprofit Convoy of Hope.

"I am very pleased to announce at this meeting's MRCTI a new partnership an exciting partnership to deliver immediate disaster assistance to any MRCTI city within 72 hours of a disaster event," said Stacy Kindor, mayor of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

And they also announced the latest development in the committee's involvement in the FEMA Reform Act.

"We're urging Congress now to also include a new and economically beneficial, robust mitigation title in the new law that includes systemic reduction of risk across a broad geographic area that will reduce disaster vulnerability of all of our communities," said Belinda Constant, mayor of Gretna, Louisiana.

Also at the meeting, initiative members also announced their plan to expand to include 10 more river tributaries, adding 80-plus more cities to the group.

Sen. John Hoffman, survivor of Minnesota lawmaker shootings, honored at Mississippi River conference